Indirect approach more successful for women while negotiating higher salaries
to mitigate social backlash. However, combining these strategies was not successful and did not avoid social backlash.
In part two of their study, the researchers surveyed 177 college-educated Americans with work experience. Like part one, the participants were asked to view short episodes in which female employees negotiated their salaries using different techniques. Additionally, the participants watched male negotiators use the same negotiation scripts. The survey participants were then asked to rate their willingness to work with the negotiators (both male and female) as well as their willingness to grant their compensation requests.
The researchers found that when the study participants watched episodes in which female negotiators legitimized their compensation requests and communicated concern for organizational relationships, the participants found the women to be more relational, found their requests for compensations to be more legitimate, and did not socially punish the women for having negotiated.
Conversely, the men who expressed the same relational concern as they negotiated were not more successful than when they used a direct negotiation approach.
The researchers called for further research that will take into account both monetary outcomes of women who negotiate for higher compensation as well as the social and relational factors that might affect compensation negotiation.
This study was published in Psychology of Women Quarterly (a SAGE Journal).
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